All Articles For I John

HERMENEUTICS, AUTHORITY, AND CANON, edited by D.A. Carson & John D. Woodbridge; Zondervan Publishing House, 1986; 468pp., $14.95 (paper). (Reviewed by Prof. H. Hanko.) The battle over the doctrine of the inerrancy of Scripture goes on and the result is a continual stream of books which flow from the ecclesiastical press. This book is a part of that stream. It is somewhat difficult to evaluate a book of this sort because of the different writers who have authored chapters—Woodbridge, Bromiley, Frame, Silva, Van Hoozer, Carson, Moo, Blomberg, Dunbar—and the different subjects and approaches which the authors take. This review, therefore,...

[Editor’s Note: This reply of the Rev. Heys is in response to comment by Mr. Jacobson in the March 15 issue, p. 273].

Thomas C. Miersma is pastor of the First Protestant Reformed Church, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. When we as children of God take up God’s Word to read and study it, we do so by faith. God has given us His Word for this one purpose, that we might understand it, that is, that it might be to us, both as believers and as churches, the only rule of faith and life. That Word of God is clear and readily understood by the child of God. As Reformed people we confess the truth of the clarity or perspicuity of Holy Scripture. This...

Gise J. Van Baren is pastor of the Protestant Reformed Church of Hudsonville, Michigan. The UCC Synod: Our local weekly newspaper, The Advance, July 21, 1987, reports on a very strange decision of the General Synod of the United Church of Christ. This denomination, a result of the union of various churches, including the old Reformed Church (German), has taken a “first-of-kind stand on Judaism”, according toThe Advance. “Among the actions of the synod was an unprecedented recognition of the role of Judaism by the Protestant church. The synod affirmed that “Judaism has not been superseded by Christianity” and that “God...

Rev. VanOverloop is pastor of Georgetown Protestant Reformed Church in Hudsonville, Michigan. That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Ephesians 3:17-19 Paul delights in telling his fellow-saints that he prays for them (Eph. 3:14). For the second time in this epistle Paul tells them that he is praying for them (Eph. 1:15ff.). What a beautiful expression of his love. Let...

Chapter 2: The Sword power and the Sixth Commandment (cont’d) And this position of the Reformed confessions is certainly based on the Word of God. Scripture certainly does not support the position that war as such is always and necessarily sin. Mark you well, we do not take up a defense for the wars of the world. It certainly is not our position that the wars of the world are always justified, that they are never sinful. But it certainly cannot be maintained in the light of the Word of God that war as such is always to be condemned.

It is in the light of what the fathers state as to the attributes of the decree of reprobation that we must also understand what this article states as to the relation between election and reprobation, and, in connection therewith, the purpose of the decree of reprobation. Of these two subjects the Coons surely speak in this 15th Article.

Rev. Laning is pastor of Hope Protestant Reformed Church in Walker, Michigan. Our fathers at Dordt said that those who deny that the believer in this life normally comes to the complete assurance that he is a child of God are guilty of introducing into the churches “the doubts of the papist.”1 Over against the comfortless lies of Rome, the Reformed churches emphasized the comfort of the child of God. This comfort the child of God can and does experience only when he is assured that he has found grace in God’s sight and that he will forever dwell in...

The question now is whether they that departed from us still deny the doctrine of the Three Points of 1924 or agree with it.  On this hinges the question whether they are or are not still Protestant Reformed.

Article 3. The death of the Son of God is the only and most perfect sacrifice and satisfaction for sin; and is of infinite worth and value, abundantly sufficient to expiate the sins of the whole world.